Historical information

This baby bonnet is made of strips or braids of machine made torchon lace crocheted together by hand and the bonnet is lined with silk fabric. There are crocheted rosettes in place which are placed to attach the ribbons. The thread used is possibly rayon which was used from 1915, but is very difficult to distinguish from silk. The Barmen machine would have been used to create the lace strips. It was developed from a braiding machine in the 1890s in Barmen which is now part of Wuppertal in Germany. This machine makes a near perfect copy of torchon lace which it creates in cylindrical form and by strategic removal of threads is flattened into the braid strip.

Significance

Churchill Island has a large lace collection, which was added to by three successive generations of the Amess family - Jane, Janet, and Unity. The Amess family owned Churchill Island from 1872 to 1929. Jane was wife of Samuel Amess, who was the first Samuel Amess to own Churchill Island. The examples of lace are notable for their variety, and provide respresentative examples of techniques from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries.

Physical description

Strips of machine made torchon lace in a bonnet, lined with silk, and crocheted rosettes for attachments to two lengths of silk for ties.

Inscriptions & markings

Packaged with note; "Hand crocheted silk lined baby's bonnet"